This is the joint website of Women Against Rape and Black Women's Rape Action Project. Both organisations are based on self-help and provide support, legal information and advocacy. We campaign for justice and protection for all women and girls, including asylum seekers, who have suffered sexual, domestic and/or racist violence.

WAR was founded in 1976. It has won changes in the law, such as making rape in marriage a crime, set legal precedents and achieved compensation for many women. BWRAP was founded in 1991. It focuses on getting justice for women of colour, bringing out the particular discrimination they face. It has prevented the deportation of many rape survivors. Both organisations are multiracial.

SlutWalk wants justice for the thousands of rape survivors who were told by the
police and courts that: they were dressed too provocatively, they didn't scream loudly
enough, they were too drunk or too young or too mentally ill to understand what
had happened to them, they must have consented because the rapist was their (ex)
husband or (ex)boyfriend, they were sex workers and should be prosecuted rather
than their attackers, they were asylum seekers and should be sent back to the
detention centre or deported . . .

As women we know that the justice system will not protect us from sexual and/or
domestic violence. When rape is reported, police often: dismiss or downgrade the
complaint, lose or fail to collect evidence, refuse to interview witnesses or make
arrests, and blame the victim (usually a woman or girl) rather than the rapist. Some
victims are discriminated against because they are women of colour. Some victims
are even accused of lying, prosecuted and imprisoned while their attackers go free.

It does terrible things to people when they don't get justice. Without justice there is
no protection for you, your friends or family – whoever got away with it and others
like him will expect to get away with it again. There is no confirmation that what
happened to you was wrong and wasn't your fault, no closure. You are left with an
open wound. And you are more vulnerable to being raped again as police are more
likely to disbelieve you if you have reported attacks in the past.

Police, lawyers and judges need to realise that it could be their daughters, wives,
girlfriends or themselves receiving this treatment.

What can we do to get protection? And what can we do when the police themselves
are the rapists, the ones who falsify statements, and the ones who accuse rape
victims of lying? In the same week, it has come out that the police lied to the
Hillsborough families about their loved ones in false statements, and a police officer
was convicted of falsifying rape documents in order to drop cases. We want all
such injustices exposed and stopped.

By marching again this year, we are letting the authorities know that we will not go
away until they take rape seriously by thoroughly investigating and prosecuting,
so that more rapists are convicted, men generally are discouraged from sexual
violence, and women get the safety and justice we deserve. We all have a right to
live free from the fear of rape.

We demand a change in police and prosecution priorities, so more rapists are
convicted and we get the safety and justice we deserve. We want the freedom to live
without fear of rape.